An electronic device that is equipped with a global positioning system (GPS) receiver may rely on signals transmitted by multiple GPS satellites to determine the location of the electronic device. Each of the GPS satellite signals may be transmitted with satellite-specific encoding that identifies the source satellite of the satellite signal. The GPS receiver may compute the location of the electronic device by identifying the broadcasting GPS satellites, decoding the satellite signals, and performing a series of computations on the data extracted from the decoded signals.
In some instances, a GPS receiver of an electronic device may encounter difficulty in acquiring the GPS satellite signals. For example, the GPS signals that are transmitted by the GPS satellites may be relatively weak in comparison to the background radio frequency noise that is present in an environment. Further, the GPS signals may be obstructed or reflected by terrestrial features such as buildings and natural formations. For example, building structures such as ceilings and roofs may attenuate GPS signals, leading to the loss of the GPS signals in an indoor environment. The ability of a GPS receiver to amplify weak GPS signals may be limited, as any amplification may also amplify the background radio frequency noise present in an environment. Accordingly, the electronic device may be forced to fall back to secondary geo-location techniques, such as cellular communication signal triangulation, inertial location approximation, the use of Wi-Fi signatures, or the use of frequency-modulation (FM) radio signals to determine the location of the electronic device.